I am looking for help with admin scripts to shape the game universe. Primarily I am looking for a script to randomly jostle a handfull of sector warps per pass. Anyone up for assistance?

Good luck, that could be brutal as you'd have to factor in bubbles to keep them connected and need to be careful not to isolate any key sectors in the process. I can just imagine finding your base stuck in a black hole.

Question: Wouldnt that require a new ztm everyday from every player?

Singularity- That is WHY I ask for help. The 'easiest' way to do the script would be truly random and could/would frag bubbles. If the script is taking a random sector then a random nonzero warpgate and setting it to a random nonzero value it shouldnt make blackholes. Likewise having it preserve the first warppoint and only muck with the others would prevent traps.

Parrothead- Yes and no. If the script is only mucking a few out of the thousands of sectors at a given pass then the ZTM redo is only -needed- occasionaly. If overused it would be like a rebang and that would need a full ZTM.

That then raises a second thought- at every Nth day have all of the sectors remapped and the ZERO ports relocated a bit but preserve everything else. Could make for some interesting play/strategy.

I can see moving Dock or the class0 but I worder if the warpdata getting messed up would corrupt my database.Ill have to ask someone that knows.

From the ZTM perspective, players using my ZTM script would be hosed since variables are saved to the database to indicate the last sector plotted and current position in the script - this allows for the resume feature. Once the ZTM is complete, it is done. I could change it to allow players to wipe the variables and do a complete new ztm - never had that situation occur and hadn't thought of it.

I don't remember how CK or SupG marks their last sector plot.

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

It could bolix things mightily, but done the way I envision there would only be a few actual warps (EXITs from a sector) changed per pass and the sweeps kept infrequent. 5 exits changed once every 6 hours in a 10k or 20k game would change little most times. Every now and again when enough changes agregate or a particularly important sector is twiddled the map really changes. Most errors would be ignoreable.

How about just doing something like moving around StarPorts or the Class 0's as already mentioned? Moving warps around is only going to peeve your players off, not like anybody is really paying attention to how they get from point A to B so long as they are able to make it. What about when it sets somebodies Base into open space or even worse an MSL, then comes Extern, lots of issues to contend with now. Also, an idea I was thinking what about moving offline players that are sitting in a sector, like a worm hole effect; though that would just really cause more issues to, it sounds kewl an all but it leaves to many things to chance, that could ultimately give one player a chanced advantage over another. Overall, I don't think that is a good idea.

I'm not certain, but I think changing a few exits could change multiple warps more than you might think. In the traffic analysis I do in the ztm, it shows the number of warps that pass through a certain sector. Sometimes this number is very high - over a few hundred, and other times low - just depends on the sectors place in the universe.

It might be an interesting concept though.

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

[quote="Promethius"]In the traffic analysis I do in the ztm, it shows the number of warps that pass through a certain sector. Sometimes this number is very high - over a few hundred, and other times low - just depends on the sectors place in the universe.[QUOTE]

In a 10k game and nudging five warps per pass for two passes per day would have a 1 in 1k chance of that high traffic sector being hit. Sounds fun. Once the basic script sequence is running, finesses can be put in. For example, if there is a traffic load database to target or protect certain sectors. The biggest changes would be in route lengths and in bubble creation/disruption, right?

It would change the route lengths and might cause some issues in the bubble. People who are thinking that sector xyz is next to a fighter hit could be in for a bit of a surprise. If they think a certain sectors is x hops from terra or dock, the same thing could occur as well as if it happend to be a jump point being used for some reason.

If I was running an SDT script and all of the sudden I find myself 20 hops from where I was, it could be bad - esp for a solo/turns/colt situation. Granted the odds favor the above not happening, and I would say give the game a shot and see what happens.   This is just a game and not life/death that we sometimes seem to think it is - #$%^ TradeWars addiction.

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

well if thats all that happens and it does corrupt my database im all for a few twists as it should show up in a CIM and correct the data on known sectors

You might want to avoid messing with sectors 1-10 so you don't fragment FedSpace. Also to avoid orphaned sectors, you may want to check for a path to and from sector 1 for each of the 2 sectors affected by each warp change. Another thing to consider is that changing the MSL's could be real bad if someone's front door got moved into an MSL.

A safer alternative would be to add random one ways to sectors with less than 6 warps out - although this could still create a backdoor into someone's base so you may want to check for the presence of planets in the destination sector.

Well, a ztm would be required more often. You can't break up a map like that since warps are interdependant. When you change 1 warp you'd have to change it in the connecting sector also.

But yea, afew here and there... would only mess stuff up a little bit.

I think the best way to do it would simply be to not effect the door of a single bubble, then exchange warps. A 3 warper would remain a 3 warper, it's just that one of it's warps out and warps in would exchange w/ other sectors.

You prolly shouldn't mess w/ fedspace or dock. And yea it prolly will corrupt our DBs. Also prolly mess up quite a few scripts, but smart scripters will always adapt. To everyone else's dismay.

Having the random sector not include 1-10 is probably a good thing. Who says it has to fix them all as two ways?

in a random sector, outcome by a 1:10 chance
one changes the first warp for outbound only.
two changes the first warp both directions
three-four changes one of the other [present] warps outbound ony
five-six changes one of the other present warps both directions
seven-eight adds a new one way warp
nine-ten adds a new two way warp

toss in an additional one in whatever that it will also delete a random warp 50/50 as one way or two way.


Yes the universe would slowly disolve into mush but the game should be won by then if people are actually PLAYING the game.

Any script writers who can/will help get a share in the say on the rest of the game edits and get credit for the script if they want it.